Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 30/03/2017

TA 0928 SW
680-1/24/96

KINGSTON UPON HULL
COMMERCIAL STREET (East side)
Marina Recreation Centre

(Formerly listed as Marina Recreation Centre, COMMERCIAL ROAD)
21.1.94

II

Shipping line offices, now recreation centre. 1872 by William Reeves of Hull, converted c1980.

MATERIALS: red brick, with ashlar and brick dressings and hipped and gabled slate roof with rounded corner, topped with a weather vane in the form of a Wilson Line Steamer.

EXTERIOR: stepped plinth, modillion wooden eaves. Recessed panels with dentilated heads, divided by pilasters. two storeys; two x eight windows, with a rounded corner, five windows. Rounded corner has a central entrance bay with a traceried round-arched two-light window with shafts. Above it, a recessed panel containing a clock. This clock was constructed by Wm Potts of Leeds in 1899; it has a pin wheel escapement and compensating pendulum and was restored by D V Stipetic. Below, a round arched doorway with granite columns and steps with brass handrails. Late C20 glazed double doors with fanlight. On either side, two round-arched plain sashes with pilasters. Below, two windows on either side with similar pilasters and flat heads, the far right window now blocked. Left return, to Commercial Road has two round-headed windows above and two flat-headed windows below. Right return, to Kingston Street, has eight tall round-arched margin glazed two-light windows to the former general office.

INTERIOR: has moulded cornice with double modillions, and coved ceiling. Internal clock has twin dials driven from a single weight driven movement and a dead beat escapement, constructed by Thomas Reynoldson of Hull c1872 and restored by D V Stipetic c1980. The wind vane is linked internally to a compass dial which indicates the wind direction was constructed by Thomas Reynoldson of Hull c1872 and restored by D V Stipetic c1980. It is the only such wind vane and direction compass still surviving in Hull.

HISTORY: built as the head offices for Thomas Wilson, Sons & Co., the largest private steamship company in the world in the late C19. Commencing a steamship service from Norway and Sweden by 1843 the company were dominating the transportation of migrants from Scandinavia, Germany and Russia through Hull on route for America by the late 1850s. Thomas Wilson & Sons virtually held the monopoly for emigrant traffic from Scandinavia up to 1914. It is estimated that 2.2 million migrants passed through Hull in the years 1836-1914, the majority travelling on Wilson Line ships.

Listing NGR: TA0948828472

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26584675

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)